Thursday, May 30, 2013

Tooned out

NZ Herald:
--The cartoons, by Al Nisbett, have been widely condemned on social networking sites as racist towards Maori and Pacific Islanders.Dame Susan said at a press conference this afternoon that the cartoons did not breach the level considered to be racist under the Human Rights Act.One of the drawings published in the Marlborough Express appeared to show a group of brown-skinned adults in school uniforms taking advantage of the breakfast in schools programme to save money for cigarettes, alcohol and pokies.The other cartoon, printed in The Press showed a Maori or Polynesian family discussing how great the free breakfast programme would be to help them ease their poverty, while sitting in front of lottery tickets, cigarettes and empty beer cans.[...]But she said it did not reach the high threshold considered to be racist in the Human Rights Act because they did not incite racial disharmony."We have the right to freedom of expression and we have the right to freedom of speech and people can say what they like and print what they like, even if we find it really offensive."A lot of people agreed with the cartoons, Dame Susan said."I personally and those at the Commission don't [agree with the cartoons]. We do find it offensive, we find it quite insulting."
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I heard Devoy on Radio Live this morning being given a relaxing massage by Sean Plunket - who then concluded she had gone all PC whimpy liberal. Talk-hate radio at its finest. Devoy also couched her response in terms of understanding: 'I can understand where you[racists] are coming from'. That's the problem right there. The "we" is the commission staff of liberal pointy-heads the conservatives so despise, but what about the "I" of her personal beliefs? There is no way she can have credibility with her track record and with what she has said today.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, when asked if the cartoon was racist, and said it was confusing and difficult to work out. "That's not the way Maori and Pacific Island people dress, that's my problem with the inference." Mr Peters said the cartoon was ambiguous. "I can't really help you because I'm not an expert on how you interpret cartoons."